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VANCOUVER -- When Mary Kitagawa was a little girl, she and her family were removed from their Saltspring Island home when Ottawa interned all B.C. residents of Japanese descent in the months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

She remembers watching an RCMP officer with a gun manhandle her farmer father onto a truck in 1942 — leading her to believe he was being taken away to be shot.

The Kitagawas, with many others, were held in the smelly horse barns of Hastings Park before being transported to points east. The horse and cow barns at the park were used to house female internees, while the men were confined to the Forum.

"Going to Hastings Park was one of the most degrading experiences of our lives," said Kitigawa, one of many survivors who attended Vancouver city hall Wednesday to hear councillors apologize for the racist 1942 motion passed by their predecessors in support of internment. "The reason I continue to speak about this is because my parents were deeply affected by the internment. Their voices are silent, so I use mine."

Robertson acknowledged that the memories of those cruel events 71 years ago still resonate for Kitagawa and others who heard his apology.

"I only wish the council of 1942 had the depth of understanding and reconciliation as we do," Robertson said. "What sinks in here for me today are the lack of words in our realm for what happened."

More than 22,000 people of Japanese descent were removed from a 100-mile zone along the west coast, many to camps in remote eastern B.C., and had their homes and belongings seized.

Ken Noma, the president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians, said to the interned, Vancouver is still a spiritual home, akin to the way Jews feel about the Wailing Wall.

Robertson said the city is planning memorial plaques at Hastings Park and may also rename streets "that don't reflect reality." For example, the mayor said he'd like streets in the former "Japantown" — in the modern-day Downtown Eastside — to be named for residents who once lived there.

In sombre speeches, many of the councillors said they were appalled at how their predecessors in council supported internment.

By today's standards, said Coun. Geoff Meggs, what Vancouver and Canada did to Japanese-Canadians would be considered ethnic cleansing, without the violence.

He said he doesn't believe the city has ever recovered from its harmful decision.

While councillors couldn't rescind the motions first proposed by Alderman Halford Wilson that lent weight to the federal government's internment order, they pledged never to let council chambers again be used for such purposes.

Coun. Kerry Jang said it was shocking to read Halford's motion that council adopted on February 16, 1942, in which it urged the federal government to remove "the enemy alien population" because they might lend support to any Japanese invasion.

But he said it was even more shocking to discover that more than 70 years later, little has changed.

Jang's father escaped a beating in the weeks after Pearl Harbor because someone recognized he was Chinese, so was "on our side."

But in 2010, when CSIS director Richard Fadden alleged that certain B.C. politicians were under the influence of a foreign power — the People's Republic of China — Jang and every other Asian-named politician began to get hate mail.

"It made me realize that in many ways, nothing has really changed," he said.

The apology comes 25 years after the federal government's 1988 apology and redress. Last year, the University of B.C. offered honorary degrees to those citizens whose education was interrupted by the forced internment. That event led council to consider offering its own apology for Wilson's racist motions.

Vancouver Council's Apology for the City of Vancouver's Role in the 1942 Internment of Japanese-Canadians, September 25, 2013

MOVER: Mayor Gregor Robertson

SECONDER: Councillor Kerry Jang

WHEREAS

1. The year 2013 marks the 71st year since the War Measures Act was invoked and all residents of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from coastal British Columbia;

2. The Vancouver City Council in 1942 unanimously passed a motion (Appendix A) calling for "the removal of the enemy alien population from the Pacific coast to central parts of Canada", specifically anyone of Japanese descent without any consideration for place or birth or citizenship;

3. These residents of Japanese descent were unable to return to the City of Vancouver until April 1, 1949, four years after the end of the Second World War;

4. The year 2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the historic Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement with the Government of Canada and one year since the Province of British Columbia's apology for its

complicity and support of the internment;

5. The year 2013 marks one year since the University of British Columbia's recognition of and granting of honourary degrees to students of Japanese descent who were forced to leave their UBC studies in 1942;

6. Since 2010 the City of Vancouver has been working with Canadians of Japanese descent to preserve the history of the internment for future generations;

7. On October 5, 2010, the City of Vancouver joined the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities against Racism and Discrimination thereby committing to taking action to combat racism and discrimination;

8. June 21, 2013, to June 20, 2014, has been proclaimed the Year of Reconciliation in the City of Vancouver in an ongoing effort to heal deep historical wounds, and build new relationships that bring all communities together based on mutual respect, dignity and hope.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of Vancouver does hereby take full responsibility for its actions. With humility and respect, the City of Vancouver

formally apologizes for its complicity, its inaction, and for failing to protect her residents of Japanese descent;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the City of Vancouver pledges to do all it can to ensure such injustices will not happen again to any of its residents, thereby upholding the principles of human rights, justice and equality now and in the future.

UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED

Original Vancouver City Council motions of February 16, 1942

PROPOSED REMOVAL FROM THE PACIFIC COAST OF ALL RESIDENTS OF JAPANESE RACIAL ORIGIN

Moved by Alderman Wilson

Seconded by Alderman Price

WHEREAS the concentration of approximately 25,000 residents of Japanese racial origin on Canada's Pacific Coast constitutes a potential reservoir of volunteer aid to our enemy, Japan, in event of raids or an invasion by the armed forces of that nation;

AND WHEREAS, citizens of Canada's Pacific Coast look upon this enemy alien population as a potential menace and feel that in the interest of National security, their removal to central parts of Canada is desirable, where a just and reasonable care for their livelihood be provided by the Federal Government.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Vancouver City Council representing the citizens of Canada's largest Pacific Coast City implores the Federal Government to remove all residents of Japanese racial origin and enemy aliens to areas of Canada well-removed from the Pacific Coast, and that their removal be under such conditions as will provide them with the essentials of a reasonable

livelihood; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that our opinion, as recorded in this Resolution, be forwarded to the Prime Minister of Canada and all British Columbia Members of

Parliament.

CARRIED

Moved by Alderman Wilson

Seconded by Alderman Price

That we beseech the authorities to re-establish the Committee dealing with the Japanese, comprising Mayor F. Hume, Col. A. W. Sparling. D.S.O., and Col. McGregor McIntosh.

CARRIED

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Vancouver council apologizes to Japanese-Canadians for 1942 support of internment

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